BEE PASTUKAGE. 81 



tlieiv flowers about the middle of Juno, rich in sweetness, 

 and like the raspberry, the bees visit them at all hours, 

 and in nearly all kinds of weather. They remain in bloom 

 from four to six weeks ; in a few instances I have known the 

 catnip to last twelve, yielding honey during the whole time. 

 If there is any plant that I would cultivate especially for 

 honey, it would be catnip. I find nothing to surpass it. 

 Borage has been recommended as yielding abundantly, 

 and worthy of cultivation, but the profusion of flowers 

 produced by the catnip, seems to excel it. The Alsike or 

 Swedish white clover has also much to recommend it. 

 The plant being valuable for soiling cattle, or for hay, 

 would be a desirable acquisition to the bee-keeping farmer, 

 as well as to others on whose land it will thrive. It does 

 not do well on sandy soil, with me. 



Ox-eye Daisy {JLev^anthemum vulgare), a beautiful 

 flower in pasture and meadow, and worth but little in 

 either, also contains some honey. The flower is compound, 

 and each little floret secretes so minute a quantity that the 

 task of obtaining a load is very tedious. It is only visited 

 when the more copiously honey-yielding flowers are scarce. 

 The Toad-flax or Snap-dragon, {lAnaria vulgaris), with 

 its disagreeable odor, troubling the farmer with its vile 

 presence, is made to bestow the only good thing about it, 

 except its beauty, upon our insect. The flower is large and 

 tubular, and to reach the honey the bee must enter it. To 

 see the bee almost disappear within the folds of the corolla, 

 one would think it was about being swallowed, but it soon 

 emerges, covered with dust, unharnied, from the yellow 

 prison. This is not brushed into peUets on its legs, like 

 the pollen from some other flowers, and some adheres to 

 its back, between the wings, which it is apparently unable 

 to remove, as it often remains there for months. Bush 

 Honey-suckle, (I)iervilla trifida), is another particular fa- 

 vorite. 



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